


that's how the game begins, oh, that's how I get home again

by coatylbutter



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Found Family, Game Night, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24955408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coatylbutter/pseuds/coatylbutter
Summary: Settling into Floor 6 with Gamenight.
Relationships: no. - Relationship
Comments: 13
Kudos: 45
Collections: victors' tower (stories from floor 6)





	that's how the game begins, oh, that's how I get home again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WreakingHavok](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WreakingHavok/gifts).



> Title is from "And the day goes on" by Bill Wurtz.

Once Schlatt had gotten somewhat used to life on Floor 6, he noticed some things that he hadn’t noticed before. Like the schedule all the others worked by, even if they didn’t really notice their schedule. 

Perhaps they’d just fallen into the rhythm of living here and didn’t bother to notice what they did was based on some form of schedule. At the very least, Travis seemed to be aware of this, but he always seemed to be aware of stuff the others weren’t and oblivious to stuff that would’ve seemed obvious- whatever, that wasn’t the point Schlatt was trying to make. 

One thing he’d noticed first was that Floor 6 had adopted some sort of weekly game night. Now he was sure they noticed they were doing this regularly, because every friday, all of them would gather in the living room and play a game- be it Uno or Jackbox or Monopoly or something. Board games and Video games. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. 

Schlatt didn’t know how long they had been doing this. Surely before he’d won, as they already sort of had it in their schedule when he moved in. The first few weeks, when he hadn’t even left his room, he didn’t even know they did this. Once he walked in on them, and Carson had invited him to join their next game of Uno, but he declined and went back to his room.

Honestly for the first few months, he just didn’t want to join them. He wanted to distance himself from everyone, pretending this wasn’t happening. So he would barricade himself in his room every Friday evening. But one day, probably sometime in February, he decided to join them (more like was dragged out of his room by Travis, but whatever.)

That night they had been planning on playing some game called Stardew Valley- Cooper seemed to like it. But he didn’t know what Stardew Valley was or how to play, and when he brought this up, Carson asked if they would mind changing to Minecraft.

Schlatt knew how to play Minecraft- It was the first computer game he was taught when he moved into the tower, and it was well known among many, even in the poorer districts which didn’t have internet for the most part. 

It was nice, playing as a little cube man who had no cares in the world. Whenever he played alone it was vaguely therapeutic. Building in an empty land with silence and a wolf who he would always endearingly name “Bonk” was nice and calming. 

However he was not playing alone, and hence, this made everything a lot more hectic.

Not that he minded. He thought it was funny- even though he kept falling in Cooper’s redstone traps and had to keep listening to others play his least favorite music disc and Carson kept putting these god awful maps up that had really zoomed in pictures of his lips. It was fun. It was a different way of playing Minecraft that he thought all the others had hyped up for the sake of videos. Turned out, sometimes playing together was just like that. 

He wondered if the other victors were like this. Whenever he couldn’t sleep and spent nights watching videos from old victors, he thought about stuff like that. If the old videos of old victors playing “Prison Escape” in minecraft were all genuine fun like he was having with his friends, or if they were scripted. He hoped they were having fun. 

After that first night on the Minecraft Server, he joined almost all of their game nights. They would play various games, but they would keep coming back to this minecraft server. The one they’d made when Schlatt joined them for the first time.

These game nights sort of helped him keep his passage of time in order- it wasn’t like he had a stream schedule that would help with that. He just kinda streamed whenever he needed to, and uploaded the morning after game night. 

Outside of keeping his schedule in order, he did genuinely enjoy these game nights. The only people really watching him play were the others on his floor, his… friends? Were they his friends? He lived with them and enjoyed talking to them, but were they his friends?

Hm. Yeah. Friends. 

Playing games are a lot less stressful when you don’t have to be acutely aware that you are being watched by upwards of a thousand people at any given moment. Also the fact that nobody would be able to take clips of you and grab anything they wanted, and take the words from your mouth. When it's just a few friends and no threat of the Capitol looming over you, yelling at people during Uno seemed less like a mask and more like a funny bit with friends.

The freedom to play whatever you wanted without the fans whining about wanting to see their favorite series was nice. He could try new things without a bunch of 12 year old Capitol Children backseat gaming and telling him he sucked. He could play something that the Capitol would deem unfit for his brand and not have to worry about the repercussions. 

Schlatt quickly found his favorite games were Minecraft and Monopoly, as well as CSgo (but they rarely played CS because they couldn’t go one match without being recognized). 

These game nights picked up his spirits, and he hoped that any future victors on their floor would want to join these game nights too. He hoped that they would want to have fun with them and play minecraft together and forge a new bond with someone he’d have to live with for the foreseeable future. If he could call these disasters his friends, he could get along with any victor that came his way. 

Schlatt wasn’t one to show he was happy. And honestly, he didn’t think he would ever be happy after The 66th game. But maybe he could be content.


End file.
